Identifying Child Sexual Abuse

Posted on October 12, 2018

Child sexual abuse (CSA) can lead to severe negative effects, hence noticing a case of sexual abuse early helps improve the victims’ condition. Factors such as the female gender, frequent use of cannabis, fear of violence, having weight insecurities, feeling of social isolation, self-harm and suicide attempts, are possible indications of sexual abuse.

CSA can be a form of an attempted act, one that has already happened or any non-contact sexual interaction with a child by an adult. CSA can affect one’s ability to adapt to his or her surroundings and lead to negative consequences like depression, low self-esteem, anxiety issues, anger, violence, hostility, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), sleepless nights and nightmares, asthma, obesity, irritable bowel syndrome, migraine, constant fatigue, heart diseases, self-harm, pain in the entire body, alcohol or substance abuse, suicide attempts, sexual issues and many other self-destructive acts.

To prevent CSA, it is crucial to identify victims of CSA as early as possible so that they can be provided with effective treatments. Teens who suffered from CSA felt tired and stressed from school more often than teenagers without such history. This also means a possibility of them being victims of violence at school although they themselves might not be violent. The most evident signs of having suffered from CSA are female gender, feeling socially isolated and self-harm.

If you have been sexually abused, understand that you are not alone, and it is not your fault. Child sexual abuse is wrong, immoral, illegal and unacceptable, and no one deserves to go through it.